In a world where personal identity often intersects with societal expectations, Nina Simons offers a refreshing perspective on embracing our true selves. She has a new way of looking at ourselves, and our identities that she believes will be valuable for anyone.

In this Q&A with Nina Simons, Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Office of Bioneers, we learn how her gender informs her leadership style. Sign up for the upcoming “EveryWoman’s Leadership: Cultivating Ourselves for Full-Spectrum Flourishing” Bioneers Learning course to gain insights on the most effective ways to trust your inner guidance. 

Why is the topic of “EveryWoman’s Leadership: Cultivating Ourselves for Full-Spectrum Flourishing” important for people to learn about right now?

Nina Simons: Because in this time of convergent and existential crises, when so many of us are feeling called to serve what we most love, we need all of our creativity and capacities to respond in ways that are whole, human, joyful, and effective (regardless of temporary gender assignment).

We all carry culturally embedded messaging and biases that don’t serve our best intentions. They often keep us small. This course is designed to help us see and shed what no longer serves, strengthen our best offerings, those gifts that are uniquely ours to bring, and because my life has taught me that together, we can accelerate each others’ growth and flourishing. 

How did your career relating to your upcoming Bioneers Learning course begin?

NS: My journey began with the realization of how much my gender was influencing my vision for myself and my life. Over the past 20-30 years, I’ve studied and explored how leadership is being collectively and collaboratively reinvented. I’ve been inspired by hundreds of leaders who are diverse in every way. Co-facilitating groups of women in immersive residential pieces of training, I’ve learned the joys and challenges of mutual mentorship. 

What is one piece of research that you find particularly fascinating that relates to your upcoming Bioneers Learning course? Why?

NS: My research and that of the authors of The Athena Doctrine have shown me how we’ve inherited a model of leadership that is getting in our way. Based on their meta-surveys, 66% of the global respondents agreed that the world would be safer, healthier, and better if more people led like women. Our inherited model has us prioritize mental ways of knowing over all else, excluding most of our emotional, intuitive, spiritual, and embodied guidance, all of which we need for informed responses to the world we meet. 

Tell us why people reading this should sign up for your course.

NS: Being in a beloved community of practice with others who are committed can support our best selves to meet this time effectively and joyfully. Engaging with embodied and reflective practices together can result in feeling emboldened, encouraged, and inspired to more fully inhabit your own vision for who you feel called to become.